The Development Of Adolescent Mobile Phone Dependence And The Role Of Different Sources Of Social Support

With the rapid development of information technology,mobile phone dependence has become a serious social problem among adolescents.Over-reliance on mobile phones have serious adverse effects on adolescents’ academic performance,mental health,sleep quality,and interpersonal relationships.Mobile phone dependence is a condition in which individuals become overly addicted to their mobile phones and develop a strong and persistent sense of dependence,leading to behaviors including tolerance,withdrawal,cravings,loss of control,and negative life consequences that significantly endanger the physical and mental health of adolescents.Previous studies have often examined the influences of adolescent mobile phone dependence centered on variables,and the heterogeneity within populations is often overlooked.In addition,most of the previous studies were cross-sectional,and the developmental changes in adolescent mobile phone dependence over time are not yet known.Based on The Main Effects Theory of social support and The Uses and Gratifications(U&G)theory,this study examined the group heterogeneity of adolescent mobile phone dependence and the trends of different mobile phone dependence categories over time from a person-centered perspective.The effect of three sources of social support on the growing trend of adolescent mobile phone dependence in different categories and the potential effect on the way it translates between the different categories was further examined.The study reveals the developmental pattern of adolescent mobile phone dependence over time and portrays the different patterns of mobile phone dependence,providing a new perspective for identifying individual differences in the development of mobile phone dependence among adolescents,so that targeted mobile phone dependence prevention and intervention programs can be implemented.The main ideas of this study are: Study One proposed to initially explore the current situation of mobile phone dependence among adolescents and the different categories of mobile phone dependence that may exist.In Study Two,after an initial examination of several possible categories of adolescent mobile phone dependence at baseline,we inferred that there may be different developmental subgroups of adolescent mobile phone dependence over time.Therefore,Study Two proposes to explore whether there are different growth subgroups of mobile phone dependence over time through latent class growth analysis,and to further examine the effects of three sources of social support on different growth subgroups of adolescent mobile phone dependence.In Study Three,it is proposed to explore whether category transformation occurs between three points in time for different possible growth categories of adolescent mobile phone dependence through latent transition analysis,and further examine whether there is an effect of social support from the three sources on the mode of transformation.By a cluster sampling method,1214 adolescents were followed up at three-time points(6 months apart each time)using the Mobile Phone Dependence Scale and the Social Support Scale.The main findings of the study are as follows:(1)Adolescents’ mobile phone dependence differs significantly by gender and family type,and there is individual variability,with three latent categories of“low-risk group”,“medium-risk group” and “high-risk group” at baseline.(2)There are three latent growth categories for adolescent mobile phone dependence: “low-risk declining group”,“medium-risk stable group” and “high-risk increasing group”,with family support increasing the probability of adolescent mobile phone dependence being in the “low-risk group” compared to the “medium risk stable group”.(3)The social support of friends and significant others were significant predictors of the transition between categories of mobile phone dependence,while the support of family members was not a significant predictor of the transition between categories of mobile phone dependence.This study systematically explores the group heterogeneity of adolescent mobile phone dependence and the differences in the developmental trends of different individuals,and clarifies the specific relationship between different sources of social support and changes in the development of adolescent mobile phone dependence.It enriches the understanding of family support,friend support,and teacher support on mobile phone dependence during adolescence,and provides scientific references and insights for the prevention and intervention of mobile phone dependence among adolescents in practice.